The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

The doctor treating Mykhailo Volynets, BYuT National Deputy was called to the Prosecutor General’s Office to get the doctors to “soften” his diagnosis. Mr Voynets spoke of this to the newspaper Komsomoskaya Pravda in Ukraine after being discharged from the Feofaniya Clinic. He said that he had left the clinic against his will with his state of health having not particularly interested anyone over recent days. As he was leaving the clinic he complained of dizziness and said that this was not normal and that he had previously always led an active life. “And my own doctor was called to the Prosecutor General’s Office for questioning. That’s done so that the doctors wrote a “mild” diagnosis, saying that the patient was “almost healthy””

The diagnosis which the doctor issued is on several printed pages. “Scratches and blows, concussion, a slash on the head (his skin was lacerated by the leg of the chair). The doctors were most worried about his eyesight, with him scarcely able to read the letters on the illuminated screen of his mobile telephone.

However this is not the diagnosis that will be included in the criminal file.

According to the deputies who were injured, they were only asked to have a forensic medical examination a week after they arrived at the Feofaniya Clinic. It is the results of that examination which will be added to the criminal file.

“Scratches look different from those received straight after the fight. I would have had the examination earlier, insisted on it, but they explained that here the examination would be more professional”, the Deputy says.

As a result, the forensic medical examination was only carried out on 24 December, a week and a day after the injuries were sustained.

Only one Deputy, Yury Hnatkevych who is not a young man turned down the procedure. After the first blow, his blood pressure rose sharply and an ambulance took him away immediately.

“And at the end of that week a person from the Prosecutor’s Office came to me and said that I should undergo a forensic medical examination regarding my injuries. I refused: they’ll write in the file that there are no grounds to initiate a criminal investigation because there aren’t any abrasions.

As reported here, on 16 December there was a fight in the hall of the Verkhovna Rada after deputies from the Party of the Regions broke through barricades set up by the opposition BYuT faction as a protest against the criminal proceedings against leader of their faction and former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. As a result several deputies from the opposition were hospitalized.

The BYuT victims, as well as a group of deputies from Our Ukraine called on the Prosecutor General to investigate the events in the Verkhovna Rada and bring those deputies from the Party of the Regions who took part in the fight to account.

Seven deputies from the Party of the Regions have been named: Dmytro Salamatin, Petro Tsyurko, Oleksandr Peklushenko, Anatoly Horbatyuk, Vadim Stolar, Oleksandr Volkov and Oleh Tsaryov.

The Kyiv Prosecutor, after studying the material provided by Internal Affairs bodies on the events of 16 December has initiated a criminal investigation under Article 344 § 2 – interference in the activities of a public official. According to the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legislative Back-up for Law Enforcement activities, National Deputy from BYuT, Viktor Shvets, instead of a criminal case over assault, the Prosecutor has initiated one against BYuT National Deputies for blocking the tribune.